Chris At The Pictures

Back in October, a viral ad campaign for the latest Call of Duty game stated everyone's distaste for 2016 loud and clear, with the tagline "Screw this, let's go to space." Given all that's taken place since, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story – with its cast of multinational talent, themes of hope and resistance, and an incompetent villain with bad hair who sneers at the one woman who dares to defy him – couldn’t be more relevant if it tried. It’s less of a fingers-in-ears escape from reality and more a hyper-realised reflection.

Much like the political horizon, Rogue One takes us into uncharted territory, as the first of Disney-Lucasfilm’s planned array of standalone Star Wars stories taking place around the main saga. This first entry details the events leading up to A New Hope, in which a desperate Rebel Alliance attempts to steal the plans for the Empire’s ultimate weapon, the Death Star. Felicity Jones stars as Jyn Erso, a galactic delinquent with a familial tie to the Empire and a habit for disregarding orders. As the film progresses, she reluctantly amasses a band of heroes including disillusioned Imperial pilot Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed), Alliance Captain Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) and his sardonic droid partner, K-2SO (Alan Tudyk), plus monk/warrior duo Chirrut and Baze (Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen, respectively). Ben Mendelsohn plays the increasingly infuriated Director Krennic, whose connection to the Erso family provides the starting point for the story. Forest Whitaker also appears as frazzled extremist Saw Gerrera, one of the films many ties to The Clone Wars animated series.

Though this new addition to the saga fills a hitherto unknown gap in the recently re-established Star Wars canon, there are nods aplenty to Expanded Universe material, the place where the mission to steal the Death Star plans was first uncovered (as seen in the Dark Forces video game). Jyn’s father, Galen (Mads Mikkelsen, who spends a lot of time getting rained on), bears the forename of the original creator of the Rebel Alliance, Galen Marek (better known as Starkiller) from The Force Unleashed series, K-2SO smacks more than a little of HK-47 from Knights of The Old Republic, and there's an X-Wing versus Imperial walker denouement plucked from the cover of a Michael A. Stackpole novel.

It's images like this swarm of buzzards taking on an armoured behemoth that helps Rogue One forge its own identity within the larger series and sell the apparent futility and hopelessness of an ailing resistance. The down-and-dirty camerawork itself feels spontaneous, even guerrilla, while establishing shots see the scale games director Gareth Edwards employed to brilliant effect in Godzilla magnified tenfold. Cinematographer Grieg Fraser turns this giant toy box into pure eye candy, with the Death Star as an irresistible jawbreaker at the centre.

Appropriately, while there is a chewy surface beneath, you might break your teeth attempting to get in: a somewhat higgledy-piggeldy first act means that initial character interplay is rushed, which makes seeing them as anything more than another set of archetypal action figures a little difficult. Of the bunch, Jones, Ahmed, Yen and Luna provide the most rounded personalities. If there is any justice in the world, Luna will soon be a gigantic star, and Yen will get further chances to demonstrate his comedic timing. Those with the least to prove (Ahmed and Jones, arguably) still give everything. Oh, and Mendelsohn is great fun as Krennic’s frustration mounts, because no-one does irritable scowling quite like him. A scene between his white-caped thug and a certain helmeted figure is a gift.

Now, for the Bantha in the room: those troublesome rumours of re-shoots intended to lighten the tone or bring the spirit of the film back in line with the other episodes. Fear not. Unless (like me) you’ve scrutinised the trailers more times than is healthy, any sign of later interference is inscrutable. The Force Awakens may be a more structurally coherent film, but this is a very different beast; a war movie more than a fantasy. The spectacle of Stormtroopers getting thrown about in huge explosions is followed by a grimace and a burst of dirt and shrapnel rather than a punchline. Humour is present of course, thanks mostly to Tudyk’s figurative (and completely literal) straight-faced delivery, but it’s less a continuing gag and more a reprieve. The grit and the grime is tangible, and all the (admittedly stellar) practical effects showboating of Abrams’ instalment seem piecemeal compared to what Edwards has achieved: the most ‘realistic’ Star Wars movie since 1980.

While we’re talking The Force Awakens, those who complained endlessly that it’s similarity to A New Hope signified Lucasfilm taking no risks with the franchise ought to be silenced, and possibly even more outraged now. Rogue One is most definitely a Star Wars prequel not only in the chronological sense, but also with regards to its risk-taking, its attempt to re-invent the series, and an insistence on blurring the line between physical and digital filmmaking like never before.  No, not every gamble pays off, but whether it leaves you aghast or amazed, the sheer audacity is gobsmacking.

The effectiveness of fan-service as an antidote should never be underestimated, however, and I doubt there’ll be a single dissenting voice rising against a note-perfect and utterly crowd-pleasing conclusion. These closing moments allow the movie to slide snugly into place with all the satisfaction of completing a high-scoring Tetris combo, with the blip-blop sound effects replaced by Michael Giacchino’s score. This, too, is where the film breaks from tradition. Giacchino’s music is not a symphony of motifs and themes, but a continuous soundscape that blends occasional call-backs with new material that, nevertheless, still retains that epic quality we’ve all come to expect.

As someone with a great deal of expectations, what I’m happiest about is how so much of this movie reminds me why I love this ridiculous franchise in the first place. The year between The Force Awakens and Rogue One has been a year of massive personal upheaval, and returning to a galaxy far, far away to find it still discovering ways to entertain and – most importantly – surprise me is one heck of a Christmas present.